The Icehouse Five

Lt. Sissy Van Buren sat in my living room holding Sepia and my daughter,Kimberly Siselia Morris..Her god-daughter and a child whose middle name was the same as hers...A testimony to how I felt about Sissy...

If not for her...I'd still be doing this as a hobby..It was Sissy who got me to get a Private Investigator's license...and it was Sissy who had had my back out in these streets all of these years...I can't count how many cases Sissy and I had worked on and cracked over the years....Since then I had worked with her core detectives...The FBI and The DEA...all on her recomendation...

We were more than just Cop and C.I..We were family...Sissy was like my sister...

"Kevin I'm so sorry about that business with Lt. Tragg...He's an idiot and he's extremely jealous of the success  you and I have had in the past and now the success my detectives are having...He's a jealous ,vindictive ,ego-maniacal.....Let me stop...I don't want to say any more in front of the baby.." she laughed, tickling little Kimberly and watching her giggle and coo.

"That's okay...girl...I've known guys like him all my life...So glad I have my own business and answer to no one.."said my wife Sepia as she poured us some coffee..

Weeks had passed...I had deposited that 100G's that Bobby Dee had given me into little Kimberly's college fund...Sepia and I had mutually agreed that that would be where it would do the most good..We didn't need it..

"Nothing new on the case Siss?" I asked.

"No...no sign of Tyrone Mackery...The good news is that nobody in Camden seems too upset about it...I had feared some reprisals..." she said.

"Yeah..the streets are quiet..too quiet...My business with Bobby Dee is over...He just wanted to know what happened to him and for Camden to know that he wasn't responsible."I said.

"Huh...He's responsible for enough..."said Sissy...

"What is the deal with him? I know he's a loan shark....I know that people are too afraid of him to talk to you guys..but I keep thinking, just by things I've heard you and Captain Cantrell say that there is more to Bobby Dee than meets the eye."I said.

"Sure is....He has no sheet on him...Never been convicted of anything...Not even a juvy record...He has terrified that neighborhood for years....We have always believed that he was responsible for a 2006 unsolved murder of one Jack Graber..."said Sissy as she sipped her coffee..

"Grabers Deli!! I was in that place a few weeks ago...the last time I saw him...Nice joint."I said.

"It used to belong to a guy named Jack Graber...Graber was into Bobby Dee for 70G's....He foolishly bet his bundle on the horses hoping to increase his amount..But he didn't..He lost it all and couldn't pay Bobby Dee back...."said Sissy.

 

''What happened to him?" asked Sepia...

Sissy sighed...

"We found him tied to an anvil, floating in the water off Penns Landing...All of his fingers broken, cigarette burns all over him and two shots to the back of the head...I was still a detective then...It wasn't my case...As expected...Nobody saw anything....Nobody would talk to us...and he had been in the water so long there was no physical evidence... I always thought that Thomas "Hulk "Hager....Bobby Dee's enforcer did it...We brought both of them downtown, but couldn't get anything out of them...The case went cold...He had a wife and a daughter...Graber...They took it very hard....The wife died of cancer a few years back and the daughter Jacqueline Graber...She left town, very,very bitter..." said Sissy.

"Yeah..He's bad news...He'll get his one day.."I said.

We didn't discuss crime anymore...Sissy played with the baby and drank coffee and Sepia and I laughed and talked with her some more..

II-

I sat in Josies Bar with Gus ,the bartender and owner drinking beer and talking a few nights later...

"Hey Kid..I've always said that you tangle with some really bad apples....What's this I hear about you workin for Bobby Dee?" he said.

"No grass grows under your feet Gus..."I laughed..

"That's how I stay afloat." he said.

"Yeah he hired me to find somebody...Tyrone Mackery of Camden...They were about to go into business together." I said.

"Business? Again?" said Gus..

"What do you mean again?" I asked.

"TMack used to work for Bobby Dee years ago..."said Gus.

"He did?" I said.

"Oh yeah..Him and Charlie Napier..."Napes" used to be collectors and leg breakers for Bobby Dee...TMack moved up in the ranks and wound up in Camden selling a hot package....and Napes is an enforcer for Clarence Basket now..." said Gus.

"Yeah I know...I ran into Napes and Baskett a few weeks ago..."I said.

"Yeah well you might have been the last one to run into them."said Gus..

"They got popped?" I said..

"I don't know..Aint nobody seen hide nor hair of Baskett or Napes in about two weeks."said Gus...

"WHAT?" I said....

"Yeah..the young hoppers in West Philly,Southwest Philly, Manyunk,Roxborough are goin crazy...TMack turned up missing and Baskett filled the void...Now Baskett and Napes are missing and they got no connect..Word is..Those areas are dry as a bone...Even the white boys on the main line are bone dry...Funny how these things work themselves out huh?" laughed Gus..

"Yeah...Funny."I said.

III-

 I got Walter and we drove to the Fishtown home of Bobby Dee...

He opened the door and looked around....

"Were you guys followed?" he asked...He looked paranoid..

"Why should we be?" I asked..

He motioned for us to come inside and we did ...He looked both ways down the street and closed the door.

"What's goin on Kevin?  Everything is going crazy..." he said..

"I suppose you've heard that Clarence Baskett and his number two, Charlie Napier have vanished...Napes used to work for you didn't he?" I said.

"Uh yeah, years ago..."he said..."Yeah I heard that they aint been seen in two weeks...At first I thought it was Camden, gettin revenge for him taking over TMack's territories....but it wasn't Camden....and now my main man, Hulk has disappeared...Aint seen him in a week...I don't know what's goin on..."he said...For the first time since I'd known him..He looked frightened...

"You never told me that you and TMack had history?.."I asked...

He sighed...

"Yeah...He and Napes and Hulk were uh my business associates.." he said..

"You mean your collectors right?" said Kool Kat..

He looked at Kool Kat...

"I hear somebody talkin, but I don't see nobody." said Bobby Dee.

Kool Kat went to go for his gun, but I grabbed him...

"Whoa ..Chill Big Man..Chill...."I said.

"Look Kevin...I didn't have nothin to do with TMack...I wouldn't..We was boys ,he was about to cut me into  some serious dough...Clarence Baskett...I don't even know him...I knew his older brother,Charlie..but not him..." he said.

"I keep thinking there is something you're not telling me." I said.

"What? You seem to know more than I thought you knew..." he said.

Kool Kat and I stood up...

"Okay Bobby Dee...Our business is over....Take Care of yourself." I said and Kool Kat and I left..

As we drove through the city...Kool Kat looked at me..

"He's scared Kev...He keeps saying that this has nothing to do with him...but I know he's lying..Tyrome Mackey,Charles Napier and Tommy "Hulk"Hager all worked for him...They were leg breakers for him back in the day...What if they did something to somebody who is coming back at em now?" he asked..

"They haven't worked for him for years...but you're right...What if they did?   These guys have beat up a number of people in that neighborhood...That's how Bobby Dee became a power...That's why nobody will talk to anybody about him...He knows everybody and who they care about..goes the saying..."I said.

"Yeah...and one person lost their life behind it...That right there was enough to seal his reputation."said Kool Kat...

"Grabers.." I said.

"Huh? What?" asked Kool Kat..

" An unsolved 2006 murder...Jack Graber..He took that deli from him.....I wonder if all these guys had something to do with it?" I asked..

''Kev..Who do we know other than Gus, that knows all the dirt on the street and will talk with a little
persuasion?" asked Kool Kat laughing...

I smiled...

"Marco Gervay." I said...

Kool Kat laughed...

IV-

Marco Gervay was drinking alone at Roxys when Kool Kat and I walked in and sat on both sides of him...

He smiled..

"Hey Kev..Walter?" he said.

"Bartender....Give him another round of whatever he's drinkin and a beer for my friend Kevin and a Henny on the rocks for me.." he said.

Marco Gervay was no fool he looked at me..

"Okay Kev, what you need?" he asked..

"Marco...You told me you were living in Fishtown ,right before I came home from the service..back when Bobby Dee was running the neighborhood.."I said.

"He still runs it..With an iron hand I hear." said Marco.

"Jack Graber!" I said.

Marco held his head down...

"He was a nice guy, but he gambled and he couldn't leave them horses alone..Guy had the worse luck...He wanted to expand that deli..make it like a restaraunt you know...He knew the neighborhood was changing...Developers were buying up and developing new projects and young people were movin in the neighborhood with lots of cash to spend...Just like ours.."said Marco..

"He was into Bobby Dee for 70 big ones...What happened to him?" asked Kool Kat...

Marco Gervay looked around...

"One night we was all in this bar..a real bust out joint...Charlie Napier..."Napes" and Tyrone Mackey came in and sat on both sides of him just like you guys are doing me..They bought him drinks..They laughed and talked with him for hours and then they walked him outside...They all got into a car...That was the last time he was seen alive...Next time poor Jack was seen...He was dead, tied to an anvil,floating in the river...tortured and killed..That was a message..You don't pay Bobby Dee, you wind up like old Jack....Nobody ever bucked Bobby Dee or talked to the cops about anything concerning him from that time on..."said Marco...

I smiled and shook my head...

"Damn..That guy had me looking for Tyrone Mackey just a few weeks ago...He left all of that out."I mumbled..

"Look Kev...Everybody in the neighborhood knows he had Jack Graber killed..but won't nobody ever talk about it to you or the cops..." he said-

"I can imagine." I said.

"You know...He uh had another guy..Joe Crump who was in the same predicament....Joe owned an Icehouse..Joe pulled up and left town...Bobby Dee took over his Icehouse.." said Marco...

"Really? Can you show us where this Icehouse is?" I asked..

"Hey man..look..uh I don't want no trouble with Bobby Dee man."said Marco....

"You won't have any."said Kool Kat.

Marco Gervay smiled..

"I guess I ought to help you guys since uh you bought me all of these uh drinks huh?" he said.

Kool Kat and I grinned...

"Smart man aint he Kev?" said Kool Kat.

"An outright genius." I said.

V-

An hour later we drove up to the Ice house... Clerow and Owen Todd stood guard outside with their glocks drawn...

Lockpick Johnson got us inside...Kool Kat, Peeping Tom, Sean Jackson,Marco Gervay and I entered with flashlights...

The air was putrid....

It took us no time at all to find a most gruesome sight...

Frozen solid was the bodies of Tyrone Mackey, Clarence Baskett, Charles "Napes"Napier and Thomas "Hulk"Hager....All had been shot in the head with possibly a .44 magnum...Near them was another body....

"You know this guy?" I asked..

Kool Kat,Clerow, Owen Todd, Marco Gervay ,Sean Jackson, Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson all shook their heads...

"No..never seen him..." they said..

"These bodies are nearly mumified..."I said.

"What are you going to do?" asked Marco Gervay...

"I want you guys to get out of here....I'm calling the cops..."I said.

"Kev, you need me to stay?" asked Kool Kat..

 

''Nah man...I don't want you guys compromised...I got this.." I said.

"You strapped?" he asked.

"Yeah...Got my 38. smokeless and my .40 cal."I said.

Kool Kat nodded..

"Okay..We out." he said.

Marco nodded...

I stood there and looked at the grisly sight...

What in the hell had I stumbled into?

(CONCLUSION NEXT)